Public Backlash in 107 Yr. Old's Shooting Death

PINE BLUFF, Ark. -- It's a story that's made national news when a shootout with S.W.A.T. agents left a 107-year-old Arkansan man dead. Now, new details are emerging about Monroe Isadore's death in Pine Bluff Saturday night.

PINE BLUFF, Ark. -- It's a story that's made national news when a shootout with S.W.A.T. agents left a 107-year-old Arkansan man dead. Now, new details are emerging about Monroe Isadore's death in Pine Bluff Saturday night.

Patricia Barnes went to church with Isadore.

"It's devastating," she said. "I mean, he's not related to me but I grieve. I grieve for the situation."

"I look at it as a bad situation," Barnes said. "There are other means that I feel the police department could've used besides using bullets."

Pine Bluff police say they initially backed off after Isadore fired at them the first time through a door at a home off 16th Street. Officers used loud speakers to urge Isadore to come out and then sent a robot into his his room to confirm he had a gun. Then they and threw gas in through a window. But what officers say they didn't know was that Isadore, according to friends, was nearly deaf and legally blind.

"I feel personally you need to know what you're doing before you act," Barnes said.

When the S.W.A.T. team finally stormed the room, officers say Isadore shot at them, and they returned fire, killing Isadore. Bullets tore through the home of a next door neighbor, leaving folks there concerned for their safety

"Words can't even express," Barnes said.

Meanwhile, Monday night, Pine Bluff's mayor gave the public the chance to speak out during a town hall meeting at the Convention Center.

Here are some of their comments:

"It was an atrocity on this man. He was a national treasure at 107 years old. This man was killed, to me, senselessly."

"He was my friend and I'm sad that he's not in my life anymore, but he would not want this. People don't understand what the situation was and they need to stay calm and wait until all the facts are put together where it can be explained what happened because it's not what people think."

"And the first thing that hit me was what if this was my mom that police ran in on...and every public function I've been at, I've given the police chief his props for the job at the police department. You failed on this one chief."

"They could have immediately called his pastor and said get over here, let him talk to them and see if we can get some resolution, but the pastor remained quiet."

"You want to point the finger at other pastors in this community for not doing something that you want them to do. They got their own goals and objectives and things they're trying to achieve."

As things got heated during the meeting, Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said, "Okay, we're going to dismiss because I think this is getting a little out of hand and we don't want it to end that way."

The police chief says he couldn't answer many of the questions from people in the community because this case is still under investigation.